Tweet Money stolen from the state of Texas due to Republican incumbent Joe Driver's double-billing for travel expenses:  $17,431.55.

Amount his opponent, Democrat Jamie Dorris, had raised by the July filings thanks to organizations like Annie's List and Back to Basics:  $70,000.

The irony in this old Double Dip Driver quote from a Dallas Morning News article written by Emily Ramshaw (now at the Texas Tribune): Priceless.

Mr. Driver said campaign funds are often necessary to keep legislators afloat.

As a freshman representative, he said, he didn't know campaign law allowed him to use his officeholder account for noncampaign expenses, and he feared the costs would be prohibitive.


"I'm not independently wealthy, and I thought to myself, 'I don't know if I can afford this!' " he said.


But he doesn't approve of going overboard. Mr. Driver said he shares the two-bedroom Austin apartment he rents with a colleague to cut costs. And his campaign contributions to other candidates are limited to "helping other House members when they have tough campaigns."

There are some things money can't buy.  For the rest, there's Joe "Double Dip" Driver.

Tweet They say sunlight is the best disinfectant.

So excuse me while I do my best to shine a light on an Austin conservative political blog, Urban Grounds, written by Robbie Cooper.  He offered a recap of President Obama's Iraq speech last night:

Paul Mirengoff gets it exactly right when he says, “Obama tried to give the appearance of graciousness without actually being gracious. Among his many other faults, the man has no class.”

That’s it right there — that’s the thing: President Bush is a man who exudes class and a grace that Obama is completely bereft of.

"Class and grace."  Not the words I'd use, but fair enough.  Let's take a look at the comments on this post.

Image from yesterday at Fort Bliss. 
It just begs for a caption.

So, do you like Gladiator movies?

Actually, the soldiers reaction is indicative of a man who knows he is being condescended to.
A classic Alinsky tactic by B. Hussein, to show his target is beneath him.

Posted by no2liberals | September 1, 2010, 10:44 am

          Dude, that is the look that says, “Get your fucking hand off of my shoulder, mister. I’m not your boy and I’m not your friend. If my CO wasn’t standing here and your SS guys weren’t standing nearby, I’d knock you on your ass.”

          Posted by Robbie Cooper | September 1, 2010, 12:49 pm

That guy probably is thinking that he avoided being touched by dirty filthy muslims in the sandbox only to come home and be touched by our dirty stinky muslim president.

Posted by Jax | September 1, 2010, 11:03 am

Not only that, but what does a muslim use his left hand for?

Posted by no2liberals | September 1, 2010, 11:07 am

Wipe their ass and then share a hookah with it.

Posted by Jax | September 1, 2010, 11:30 am

Class and grace is a two-way street, my friends.

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I'm talking about Bill White's new TV spot, "Lobbyist Ball," an ad that focuses on Rick Perry's fundraiser in Austin on Thursday.  The event is being held at the Four Seasons and is being put on by 30 hosts -- 29 of whom are registered lobbyists. 

Call it a Lobby-Hawkins dance. 

Bill White sitting around the fireplace, talking about the "fanciest hotel in town" makes me feel like Perry stole the golden ticket to the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory out of the hands of Texas children.  In thirty seconds, it does more to hit Perry squarely in the como-se-dice's than any barn burner of a speech I could conjure up.  It's like that moment in "To Catch a Predator" when Chris Hansen comes around the corner and quietly says, "Why don't you have a seat." 

Don't believe me?  Watch it below.  There's a quiet strength in this ad that makes me think someone needs to hurry up and pass Rick Perry the frozen peas and a jock strap.

Bill White's putting his boxing gloves on.

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10. Because Tom DeLay's sentence should include driving up and down I-35 at 7:45 AM and 5:15 PM on all weekdays as well as UT game days. Oh yeah--and the car needs to not have air conditioning.

9. Because Halloween is going to be totally fun this year! Criminal DeLay, Gerrymandering DeLay, Dancing DeLay - the possibilities are endless. Lucy's in Disguise better restock on fringed leather vests and candy striper outfits. Ole!



8. Because Austin has repeatedly been listed as one of the best cities to live in and if you're going to be sentenced to life in prison like Tom DeLay could be, why not enjoy a little Austin while you've still got the music in you?

7. So politically connected people can start marketing their houses as "Home of Someone Who Once Shook the Criminal-cum-Dancer Tom Delay's Hand."

6. So Chris Bell, 2006 Texas Gubernatorial candidate and ousted Congressman due to DeLay's gerrymandering, won't have to drive as far to visit DeLay in jail.

5. Because Tom DeLay won't comprehend the true meaning of "liberal bastion" until he visits a local Thundercloud Subs.

4. So Rick Perry will have another irrelevant excuse to refuse to debate Bill White and continue to live up to his title as a "coward," which at this point pretty much guarantees him losing the election.

3. So Tea Partiers will stop saying racist, anti-Muslim things about the mosque in New York and instead say racist, anti-Muslim things about the DeLay trial in Austin, since that argument here is about as pointless as it is in New York City.

2. So George W. Bush won't ever come within a 50 mile radius of Austin again. Ever.

And the number one reason why the TomDeLay trial should stay in Austin is because taxpayers know Rick Perry's got an extra room in his $10,000 a month rental mansion for Tom DeLay to stay in during the trial. Sleepover at Slick Rick's rental! Rove'll bring the marshmallows.

Yup. Now this is a reality show that I could get into.

Tweet Yesterday, the Rick Perry is a Coward ad done by the Back to Basics PAC ran in 24 newspapers across the state of Texas. I asked friends and family members from across the state to send me pictures to see how Rick Perry looked in newsprint in their local dailies. Many thanks to everyone who sent in pictures.



Yup, the same paper that called me a "Republican with Democratic connections" yesterday (the error has since been corrected) refused to print the Coward ad. As reported by the Texas Tribune's Reeve Hamilton:

"It is kind of a glaring omission," says Back to Basics spokesman Cliff Walker. "Basically, the content that was accepted at 24 other papers was rejected."

The ad attacks Perry for being unwilling to debate Bill White, his Democratic opponent, or go before newspaper editorial boards. Ultimately, the decision at the Chronicle all came down to that one very visible word: "coward."

Blogger PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has canceled his subscription to the Chronicle, saying "I just can't support cowardice like this. I'm guessing that the Chronicle isn't in line to sponsor a gubernatorial debate either."

Got a pic of your paper's Perry ad? Email it to me and I'll add it to the long list of papers who, unlike the Houston Chronicle and Rick Perry, aren't cowards.

Tweet I came across a Fast Company story about the top tech blunders by politicos over the years this weekend and cringed as I read it. At this point you've either got to be blissfully stupid or pointedly ignoring (case in point, Elliott Naishtat) new forms of technology in order to have these kinds of slip ups.

Not to fear, my fearless leaders! I decided to put together a little list of my own. I call it "5 Things Politicians Shouldn't Say When Discussing the Internets." Because, obviously, ten things and their website URL would be too much for them to remember.

1. Don't put "the" in front of, well, the anything.

Google, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare...the list goes on. All of these things aren't objects like the family dog, they're brands. Think of it like this: You wouldn't say "I'm going to go watch the NASCAR," would you? What about "I wonder if the Versace designed this dress?"

2. Nothing is plural.

Think about it. You're better off dropping the 's' if you don't quite know. To quote an old horseback riding saying, "When in doubt, leave it out."

3. "Webpages" are no longer part of our web-speak.

Webpages were something you had in 1995. So please stop saying "Facepage."

4. Know how to tell people where to find you online.

Do not pull a Joe Biden and show all of America that you don't even know what a website is (he actually asked an aide on live TV, "Do you know the website number?"). Your website, Twitter account and YouTube account (if you have one) should all be memorized like you'd memorize a talking point because this is a talking point.

5. If you don't know, don't pretend.

If someone asks you a question about the internets, the Google or the Twitters, and you have no idea how to answer, then just admit it. The YouTube video later on will be way less interesting that way, which guarantees no one will watch it.

BONUS:

Speaking of YouTube videos, no one who ever made a viral YouTube video set out to make a viral YouTube video. Do not declare that you think something will go viral, as it most likely won't and what's more, it contradicts with the nature of the viral video. You can set out to make a good video that will be accepted and enjoyed by many. But the videos that truly go viral are the ones that had the least amount of expectations. Here's one for you -- this was once the most-watched video of all time on YouTube, and has about 221,500,000 views. Trot this little internet lore out at your next fundraiser! You'll be a hit.

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Back to Basics is laying it out in black and white: Rick Perry is a coward for refusing to debate Bill White or talk to editorial boards. Even the Eagle in Bryan-College Station, the hometown of Rick Perry's alma-mater, issued an editorial today chastising Perry for refusing to debate, saying:

What is he hiding from the people he was elected to serve? It's fine to speak to groups of supporters. His ego certainly gets a boost.
But he is governor of all Texans and answerable not only to those who love him, but to the rest who aren't sure.
Perry might not like the questions asked and the issues raised in public debates. That's too bad. If he wants to keep his job, he needs to let Texans raise them

The full-page ad above hits newspapers in twenty cities across Texas on Tuesday but was leaked on Sunday night.

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The war in Iraq, or rather, the major combat operations in Iraq, those pesky little "objectives" that George W. Bush claimed ended in May of 2003 (he was never very good at numbers), ended in earnest this evening, as fourteen-thousand combat troops rolled out of Iraq and across the border into Kuwait.

As news came in across Twitter (not even an idea on a napkin at the time of the initial Baghdad invasion) and on major news networks, I felt eerily similar to how I felt on September 11th, 2001:

At a loss, staring at a pile of rubble, with the death toll being announced over and over again.

We lost 4,415 service men and women during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The war in Iraq will be spun and molded in the coming days and weeks to have been a war fought by brave men and women who sacrificed their lives, limbs and mental capacity because they--stirred by 9/11, lured by college tuition or inspired by Vietnam movies--volunteered to do so. We will be reminded, as justification for future warfare, that America's security is comprised of a volunteer military force, brave fighters who signed up to protect our freedom and--this being the most important thing --defend America.

On the morning of 9/11, I recall hearing that the towers fell as I drove to work and feeling an indescribable loss that I now share with every person alive during that time. Today, as the last Stryker vehicle crossed into Kuwait, I felt the same sense of loss. But our nation, perhaps still reeling from its own PTSD caused by the last seven and a half years of warring with an invisible enemy, showed no signs of mourning. Traffic slowed during rush hour. Happy hours came and went. The radio played Lady Gaga instead of Lee Greenwood.

Justifiably at a standstill when our towers fell and our then-President declared his most tragic of all decisions that we would "make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them," the world did not stop turning or even slow to a crawl today as the United States voluntarily exited a war it had, waving hundreds of flags and buying yellow magnetic ribbons, voluntarily entered.

If there is anything left to be learned from Iraq, it is that we were all unwitting volunteers in our country's greatest lie. We were all drafted to care about a country we had no business being in, and are all war criminals in the too-often fatal indignities its citizens suffered because of our country's actions. We have sacrificed our money, our diplomatic standing and worst of all, our military judgment, to rush headlong into a knife fight with tankers.

And as for our volunteer military? No one in the United States military service ever volunteered to defend a lie.

"Each of you is here to help defend our country from the very dangerous threats that we face. You weren't drafted. You weren't conscripted. You stepped forward. You volunteered." Donald Rumsfeld, Aviano AFB, February 2003

"We know where [WMD's] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Donald Rumsfeld, ABC News, March 2003

“Is Iraq going to be a long war?” Mr. Rumsfeld answered, “No, I don’t believe it is.”
Donald Rumsfeld, Washington Post, February 2006

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After hearing that Rick Perry spends about $10,000 worth of taxpayer money a month to pay his landlords, I got to wondering where he stacked up against other celebs in his pay-as-he-goes lifestyle.

To summarize my findings: Rick Perry seems to have the spending habits of a drugged-out, possibly insane, Hollywood starlet.

'Cause that's who you want running the state of Texas.

1. Britney Spears - $30,000/month for a New Jersey rental mansion

2. Lindsay Lohan - $11,500/month for a Los Angeles rental mansion

3. Rick Perry - $9,900/month for a West Austin rental mansion

4. Mischa Barton - $7,000/month for a trendy Tribeca flat

5. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen - $6,000/month each for a shared West Village penthouse (hey, at least they room together!)

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Now, the story this week about State Representative Rafael Anchia's national appearance discussing "anchor babies" on Anderson Cooper was pretty exciting.

But another representative much closer to home -- and much closer to my heart -- hit it out of the park and went international this week.

It just goes to show you: you might have a pretty smile and play a welcome contrast to the slightly manic Debbie Riddle, Anchia, but you're going to have to step it up if you want to take on Representative Elliott Naishtat's captivating commentary on a Chinese performing art known as Shen Yun at the Long Center.



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